Coming of age somewhere between Heaven and Hell

May in the Valley of the Rainbow

By Yoichi Funado

His real name is Toshio Manahan, but everyone calls him “Japino” because he’s half-Japanese, half-Filipino. Japino reveals the troubling world of adolescence we are all familiar with. The setting is Garsaponga, a rural village in the tropical mountains of the Philippines, where guerrilla warfare rages and corruption reigns.

Yoichi Funado is the reigning monarch of the contemporary political thriller in Japan. No Japanese novelist is better acquainted with independence and resistance movements currently active around the world. Funado has received various awards from the Japan Adventure Writing Association, Japan Mystery Writers Association, and a Yoshikawa Eiji Prize and Yamamoto Shugoro Prize for suspense writing. He has translated Dashiell Hammett and has written original script for the popular manga series Golgo 13.

“An entertaining roller-coaster of a read.”
—The Complete Review

“The strength of the novel lies in its ability to present larger political issues in a condensed, tight framework. Read carefully, the novel is a disquieting look at the realities of politics, war, and power throughout Asia… Eve Alison Nyren does a fine job providing a smooth, readable translation of challenging material.”
—Avenues Magazine